Scattered
by notcreativeenoughtomakeone
Summary: The gang has been missing for seven months, and the only witness is a broken girl. The Inspector assigned to her case finds himself risking everything to unravel not only the mystery of her friends disappearance, but finally solving the Lyoko Conspiracy.
1. Aftermath

**It's been awhile, I've been busy. Thankfully I've also been writing. I will eventually finish my stories, but those documents are on formats not accepted by my current laptop, so I need a software update. As soon as I take care of that, and maybe get some internet, (Seriously, I'm not joking when I say I've lived twos year without cable or internet), I'll start publishing again.**

**Two disclosures, I don't own Code Lyoko, and I haven't finished Evolution yet.**

* * *

Yumi opened her eyes and saw a fake sky above her. Sitting up she looked around, rubbing her head and saw she was in a mountain sector somewhere. Standing up she felt a little disoriented and nearly fell over.

"What just happened?," Yumi asked and looked at a cliff and remembered she was in a nav skid. It looked like her's clipped the cliff, destroying the skid midair while she was asleep. So far this didn't seem good.

"Jeremie?" Yumi asked aloud, "Jeremie?"

Yumi looked at the sky as if she'd hear his voice. Sighing she looked around and saw no one.

"Ulrich!" Yumi shouted and looked around "Odd! Aelita! Anyone! William! Jeremie, Jeremie!" She shouted nearly in tears now and looked around.

Yumi's nav skid crashed landed, and now she was in the middle of no where. She wasn't even sure if she was in Lyoko, and not one of the replikas. Turning around she saw a tower in the distance and figured it was at least a relatively safe haven.

When Yumi arrived at the tower she saw no security at all so ran straight in and stopped at the monitor. Opening the screen she read some of the data and groaned.

"Should have listened more when Jeremie explained," Yumi said and looked at some of the system diagnostics, "What does that mean, where am I?"

Yumi scrolled through the data and couldn't remember anything of what Jeremie or Aelita taught them.

"How do I give this thing orders?" Yumi asked and groaned, "Orders...command."

Yumi typed in '_CMD_' and a black screen appeared with a flashing 'Issue Command'

"Map," Yumi said and typed in '_MAP_' and it said 'not a recognized order.'

"Wait, no, 'system architecture'" Yumi typed in '_STM ARC_' and a two-dimensional map appeared, pinpointing her position in the mountain sector. She pulled back the map and smiled when she saw it connected to a center section which connected to three other sectors.

Yumi was still in Lyoko. Sighing in relief that she wasn't in the net somewhere on a replika. Thinking, she tried to remember how to find the others. She typed in her name and it zoomed in on her location. She typed in the others names and found they weren't in Lyoko. She typed in skid and saw it docked, but the Nav Skids were gone.

"Where did XANA shoot them out to," Yumi asked, and tried several things but it didn't recognize any of the commands. Yumi slammed her hands on the screen in frustration and looked at the screen. When she slammed her hands she accidentally typed '_JOREMTIY_'. She laughed a little, thinking about it how it looked like Jeremie. She fixed the spelling and hit enter, only to watch it zoom to his location in Carthage.

"Jeremie?" Yumi asked and saw his avatar on the screen, "Why are you here?"

* * *

It felt like he was suspended. His nav skid was tumbling in the empty nothingness of the net. No one and nothing was near him as he drifted alone. The nav skid was a tiny piece of rubble in a void that never ended.

Ulrich slowly opened his eyes and looked around his surroundings. He saw his controls were not lit up, his yoke didn't move at all, nothing responded. Looking out of his windshield he saw nothing, so much nothing.

"Yumi?" Ulrich asked through the communications, "Odd? Jeremie? William? Aelita? Anyone?"

Ulrich listened and didn't even hear static, "Jeremie?" Nothing was still heard, "Yumi!"

Ulrich breathed in deep and tried to calm himself down.

"You're okay, you're okay. You're just floating in the sea, near nothing, near no one, and the ship doesn't work, and you can't reach anyone," Ulrich said to himself and found he wasn't helping.

"Guys! Anyone!" Ulrich shouted, and heard static, "Guys!"

Ulrich heard someone's voice breaking through the radio. Listening carefully he tried to figure out whose voice it was. If it was a voice at all.

"I'm freaking out a little bit," he heard Odd's voice say.

"Odd? That you?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah, Ulrich?'"

"It's me buddy," Ulrich answered.

"Anyone else?" Odd asked.

"I haven't heard anything," Ulrich said and looked around, "Your ship work?"

"Yeah, I put it on idle to save some power, I only have the comms on," Odd said and Ulrich looked at his controls. Ulrich realized he as stupid and restarted the ship just to see if it could.

His ship lit up and he smiled as he felt a weight of worry get lifted from his shoulders.

"Ulrich, you see anything near you? Any replikas?" Odd asked and Ulrich checked his scanner, "Nothing?"

Suddenly he felt his nav skid vibrate and a dot popped up on his radar.

"You get that?" Ulrich asked.

"Get what?"

"Something popped up on my radar, like an explosion or something," It happened again, "There, it's behind me." Ulrich pulled the yoke and turned the pod to see what it was. He saw a third go off in the far distance, like a pinprick of light.

"I think it's a depth charge," Ulrich said and pushed forward toward it, 'I'm going to it, it might be Yumi or William setting off flares."

"Set off a missile, if I can hear you, I might be able to see you," Odd said and Ulrich hit some switches and fired a missile, which exploded away from him.

"I got you on radar. Hold your fire, I'm moving to you," Odd said and started to move his ship toward the blast. Within five minutes they found each other and waved through their windows.

"Stay on me," Ulrich said and pushed on toward the charges that went off in front of him. Odd pulled in from behind him and closely followed as they slowly moved forward. Soon they heard another voice.

"Can anyone hear me?" They heard William ask.

"William, was that you setting off bombs?" Urich asked.

"I can't believe that worked. Anyone else with you?"

"I got Odd, you got Yumi and Aelita?" Ulrich asked and William sighed.

"No, I haven't seen her. I got Aelita out in time though."

Soon they tethered all three pods together and tried to come up with a plan. Where was Jeremie? They hadn't heard anything, it made them wonder if something happened in the lab.

"You think the others are okay?" Odd asked and didn't get an immediate response, "Guys?"

"I devirtualize Aelita when XANA flipped the trap, she got out," William said and the three boys sat in their Nav Skids silently.

"Now what?" Ulrich asked.

"I'm not sure about Yumi, so it's up to Jeremie and Aelita to get us out," William said and closed his eyes.

"How do we know they're okay?" Odd asked

"We don't. We've been through worse though," William said and Ulrich shook his head.

"Actually, I think this just took number one."

* * *

The Inspector was led down the hallway by Dr. Sentry who walked next to him with her clipboard, going over the patients information and current state. It was a quiet hospital, a majority of the patients voluntary for depression or various phobias. Most wore normal clothing; pants, shirts, and dresses, very few walked around in pajamas and robes, and those were the recent suicide patients.

"If I may ask Inspector, why the visit?" Dr. Sentry asked, and the Inspector looked into the room through the window, then back to Dr. Sentry.

"New information came up in her case," the Inspector answered, looking into the room again, and seeing a girl with electric pink hair sitting on her bed, hugging her knees into her chest, looking through the bars of her window at the trees outside.

"Are you at liberty to discuss it?" Dr. Sentry asked.

"Nothing in detail, but reexamining of the scene indicates she didn't try to kill herself," the Inspector answered.

"Even with that, she's still recovering. She went through a trauma, most likely before the incident. Her memory is in fragments, and those pieces are not coming together in any logical manner," Dr. Sentry said and the Inspectorsighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Look, your job is to treat her. My job is to find out what happened to her, I'm trying to find a middle ground to accomplish both. If possible, I'd rather keep her here, but if I need her released, I need your cooperation."

"If I can, but I will not release her if I feel it will harm her," Dr. Sentry said and the Inspector nodded.

"Can you get this door open so I can speak with her?"

"She's not high risk, it's not locked," Dr. Sentry said and turned the knob and softly pushed open the door, "I'll be right here."

The Inspector walked into the room and saw the girls eyes turn to him as he came in. Her green eyes followed him as he took the chair from the desk and placed it across from her. He sat down and extended his hand out to her. She looked at his hand for a second before taking it, softly curling her fingers around his.

"Hello Aelita, my name is Alain Beaumont. I'm a Police Inspector," Inspector Beaumont said and she blinked, lowered her legs and let them touch the floor beneath her bed, and lightly smiled.

"Nice to meet you," Aelita said back and he smiled.

"Is it alright if I ask you a few questions?" He asked and she nodded her head, "Before you arrived here, what do you remember?"

"I remember, a flashing white light?" Aelita said, "A rush of wind."

"Anything else?"

"Darkness," she said, swallowing then looking away, "Something chasing me."

"When you first gained consciousness after the incident, you said that same thing. Darkness chasing you. We concluded, it now seems prematurely that darkness chasing you was figurative. Aelita, I need to know if you were alone that night."

"Which night?" Aelita asked.

"The night..."he said then hesitated, trying to think of a more delicate way to say it, "The night you fell."

"I remember falling. It was dark, nighttime," Aelita said, to differentiate between the 'Darkness' and 'Nighttime', "Stars were gorgeous that night, saw them as I was falling. The moon too, full, huge, glistening."

"Was anyone on the roof with you?" Alain asked and Aelita stared at him, blinking, then looked away to think. Alain looked at Dr. Sentry who was at the door, then back to her, "Any of your friends?"

"Friends?" Aelita asked.

"Inspector that's enough," Dr. Sentry said and stepped into the room.

"Was Jeremie there with you?" Alan asked and Aelita reacted.

"No!" Aelita screamed and ran toward the door. Dr. Sentry caught her, and held her with one arm while hitting the alert button on the wall.

"Jeremie! Jeremie! Run! Let me go, I need to help him!," Aelita screamed as three orderlies ran into the room. They grabbed her by her arms and held her still as Dr. Sentry prepped a sedative.

"Help him!" Aelita screamed, tears streaming down her face as she got dragged to her bed kicking and screaming.

"Aelita, look at me," Dr. Sentry said looking her in the eye. Aelita stopped screaming, but kept crying, "Good Aelita, calm down, no one will hurt you here. Are you calm?"

"I'm calm," Aelita mumbled, hiccupping and trembling from tears.

"It's okay, you can leave," Dr. Sentry said to the orderlies who left the room. She looked at Inspector Beaumont and said, "You too, leave."

The Inspector looked at Aelita, clutching her knees, crying uncontrollably and shaking. She curled herself up, trying to push herself further into the corner.

* * *

**This originally was my attempt at a parody titled "_Aelita in Wonderland_", but I could never commit to who was who. The furthest I got was Odd as the Cheshire Cat and William as the Knave of Hearts. I tried so many times to start it, but I stopped trying and used the notes for this.**


	2. SCIPIO

**I'm really trying to update this as fast as possible, but it doesn't always go that way. Hopefully I'll have chapter three out by the end of the week.**

* * *

"I've asked her about her friends, many times," Dr. Sentry said when Aelita was calm and left alone. The doctor took Alain to her office where she sat at her desk and he sat on her couch.

"Do the other names have that response?" Alain asked and she shook her head.

"Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and William shake her, yes. Jeremie, however," Dr. Sentry said and opened her folder.

"Jeremie Belpois' phone number was her emergency contact, but the name was Douglas Stones, who doesn't exist. Her records got weird when I dug deeper."

"I've subpoened for those files, only to get blocked. Know anything about that?" Dr. Sentry asked.

"I don't, and that's the problem. No birth certificate, ID, school or medical record from before four years ago. Before she started to attend Kadic academy, that girl didn't exist. I looked at her records, anything dated before her arrival, forged. As far as I know, that sixteen year old girl, was born four years ago."

"Inspector, does Lyoko mean anything to you?" Dr. Sentry asked and he shook his head, "She talks about Lyoko, like a veteran talks about war."

"Not in her file," Alain said and stood up, "Thank you for your time."

Alain stood up and pushed the handle down to open the door. When he stepped out the doctor stood up and asked, "What makes you believe she didn't make an attempt on her life."

"Jump, push, fall," Alain said to her before he left her office.

* * *

Alain found himself at the scene of the incident, looking up at the roof. It was night when she fell from the roof of the apartment building, so he was there at night to see if anything revealed itself to him. He looked at the roof, then at a parked car that was in the same spot as the one she crashed onto seven months ago.

Early on, the case was ruled a suicide attempt by the police, but one member of the forensic team always cried foul. No one had the time in their case load to properly investigate it, but they had too many cold cases piling up. When a case runs cold for too long, they typically give the most likely looking scenario, and close the case. Suicide cases were closed almost immediately, and he almost did close it. Until Isaac Valentine asked him to hear him out.

Isaac was a forensic analyst, specializing in physics, so his job was bullet trajectory and jumpers. He was always lead authority on suicide jumpers, but he was on vacation when Aelita fell, so his responsibilities were taken by the forensic investigator for two weeks until he got back. He went through his cases when he got back, and saw Aelita's. The photographs of the scene alone were enough to say she was pushed.

The case was closed when he got back, and trying to cut through the red tape and bureaucracy took two months just to get it reopened. Then it sat on a shelf for months until the first Inspector who had an empty case load was ready. He looked at it, and immediately motioned to close it again. Isaac asked to meet with him at the scene of the incident.

"Thank you for meeting me," Isaac said shaking his hand and as he approached and looked at him.

"I'm here, convince me," Alain said and Isaac cleared his throat and pointed at the roof.

"She fell from that roof," Isaac said and pointed at a parked car, "And landed on a car parked where this one is. Two things make this an unlikely suicide. Where she landed, and how she landed."

"What makes attempted murder stand out?" Alain asked.

"From that height, she would land maybe center sidewalk if she let herself fall. At most, maybe clip the car, not land center mass on the car. Also, she landed on her back."

"You got my attention on the distance, but why is her landing on her back strange?"

"That's not how most suicides do it. Most look straight at the ground, and fall. Or just take a step. She landed on her back, facing up at the sky. If she fell, she would have landed on her face, or had her legs snapped like twigs underneath her."

"What about a jump?" Alain asked.

"Jumping is usually when there was something she'd need to climb or jump over to reach the ledge in the first place. I've been up there, that roof is flat. Also, if she took a running start, she would have overshot the car and certainly not landed on her back."

Alain looked at the roof, then the car, and back again a few more times. All he imagined was a girl, being chased onto a roof, no where to go but down. He looked at Isaac and nodded.

"I'm convinced."

Alain had been convinced for a week now that this was an attempted murder. Then he dug deeper and found it might be related to the disappearance of five teenagers, all her friends. The deeper he dug, the more road blocks he found. Now he was at the scene again, waiting for something to come to him.

A man stepped into his car at the scene and drove off, leaving the spot she landed vacant. Needing inspiration he walked into the spot and look up. Nothing unusual about the night sky. He lay down in the parking spot, looking straight up. He looked at her case file and saw the time of her fall was estimated at 8:15PM. He looked at his watch; 8:07PM.

"About the same time," He said and look up at the blank sky. Light pollution stole the stars out of the sky, and the moon was being blocked by the bigger buildings in the city. Sighing he looked at her file, at her picture, then remembered what she told him.

"_Stars were gorgeous that night, saw them as I was falling. The moon too, full, huge, glistening_," Aelita had said and he looked at the sky again. Blank.

"What stars?" Alain said aloud, "And moon. Why does she think she..." He started to say before a car horn went off, making him jump. Someone wanted the parking spot. Alain moved and looked up at he sky again.

"Where did you see stars?"

* * *

Yumi sat next to the monitor, trying to remember what made the orb come. She needed to get into Carthage, but couldn't remember the code.

"Carthage," Yumi said to herself and stood up. She typed in 'HANNIBAL' and it said it didn't recognize the order, "Okay, Jeremie was right, I needed to pay attention."

_ 'Punic'_

_ 'Rome'_

_ 'Cannae'_

"Oh come on!" Yumi shouted and paced in the room while thinking, "Who defeated Hannibal. Roman general, come on what was his name. Roman's got titles for locations of their victories. Where was Carthage?

"He fought with elephants, India? Fabian strategy?" Yumi thought, random terms coming to her head. She typed in '_FABIAN_' and nothing.

"African elephant. Horn of Africa, Tunisia. Afrikaner? Africanus. Africanus!" Yumi said and typed that in. Nothing.

"Blank Africanus. Publius was already dead. His son. Publius Cornelius Scipio. Scipio Africanus."

'_SCIPIO_.' and '_CNT LCN_?' was the response. Yumi smiled and hit enter.

* * *

Alain sat at his desk, just looking at Aelita's file, seeing if anything would click. He had to say, it was one of the most unusual cases he had ever encountered in his career. The lack of information about the girl was a conspiracy itself. Everyone left a paper trail, or at the least a trail of shredded paper to indicate there was one. Aelita Stones, nothing. Who didn't exist, or would have a paper trail shorter than their lifespan.

Witness protection came to his mind. Searching her name he found nothing. Interpol nothing. Sitting back into his chair he thought. Who didn't exist? Many of her documents were forged, maybe Aelita Stones wasn't her real name. Maybe she stole Aelita Stone's identity. Aelita was already an interesting enough name as it was, he could widen the search to at least start somewhere.

Before he started, Alain opened a drawer on his desk and looked down at the bottle of scotch next to a dirty glass. He felt himself smacking his lips before he grabbed the bottle and took a deep breath. Alain stared at the bottle, and swallowed loudly. All he wanted to do was pour a drink. He looked down at the picture frame on his desk and slowly lowered the bottle back into the drawer.

"Slyvie...Slyvie...Slvie..." Alain said, over and over again as he closed the drawer until he couldn't see the bottle anymore. Alain took a moment to pause, collect his thoughts, and continue his investigation.

Missing persons reports from five years ago. He typed Aelita. Nothing. Ten years. Nothing. All records, one result. Opening the file he read the report.

Aelita Hopper and her father Franz Hopper disappeared in 1994. A majority of the report was about Franz and the attempts to find him.

"Franz, why did they try so hard to find you?" Alain said to himself and read more on him.

He was scientist, a teacher, a husband and father. He taught at Kadic academy.

"Kadic, that's where Ms. Stone's went," Alain thought aloud and noticed some of his documents were blacked out, "Who the hell were you?"

Normal information was blacked out. Spouse's name, date of birth, residence, occupational history. He opened a JPEG file attached and it was a picture of his ID. Older man, peppered hair and mustache with thick glasses.

"Franz Hopper," He said and opened his email and sent out messages to all of the major science institutes, to see if he ever worked at them.

"Aelita Hopper goes missing, a decade later, same school, another Aelita with forged documents. Suspicious is an understatement."


	3. Stars in the Sky

_**This story, I already finished writing, but I'm still going through and making corrections little by little. I've almost finished the Not So Fast sequel, and as soon as I get software that doesn't hate my laptop, I'll get to publishing that. **_

* * *

Odd was the first to wake up to the sound of his screen beeping. He groaned and looked at his screen, then immediately looked out his window.

"Guys wake up!" Odd shouted and didn't hear a response, "Cast the anchors, ship to starboard, insert generic sailor term, just wake up!"

"What Odd...whoa, turn!" William shouted as he woke up, seeing they were about to crash into a replika.

"Full reverse!" Ulrich shouted and they all quickly turned on their skids and hit reverse. They barely managed to avoid crashing into the side of the replika full force, and only received a little ding on Odd's.

"We need to get in there," William said and scanned for the dock, "Fifty meters below us is the dock."

"Untether and let's go," Odd said and they all untethered and sunk to the door.

"How do we open this again?" Ulrich asked.

"Move, I got it," William said and took the lead, typing into his console before a beam of light touched the door, and opened it for them.

"How do you remember that?" Odd asked.

"The new guy always tries too hard," William said and they went into the replika and flew out of the digital sea into an Ice Sector.

"Guys, I can't get out," Odd said, his screen flashing a red 'ERROR' when he attempted to teleport.

"That was part of XANA's plan, trap us in here," Ulrich said and slammed his fist on the monitor.

"I got an idea," William said, and had his sword appear, "But if we do this, our only hope is if they find us."

"We keep one. Odd stay put," Ulrich said and stabbed his Nav skid, and watched it dissolve around him. Ulrich landed on the ground as William did the same.

"We find a tower, try to send a message," Ulrich said and William nodded, the two taking off running to the tower in the distance. They arrived swiftly and stopped at the computer terminal.

"Move," William said and immediately typed in 'CMD' and scanned the diagnostics. He then typed in 'LCT IP ADD.' A second screen appeared and he typed in the IP for Jeremie's laptop.

"How do you..." Ulrich asked before he stayed quiet.

"Hope he checks the email," William said and typed a message to Jeremie before closing the screen typing, 'LCT STN' making another screen appear where several other replikas were displayed in relation to the one they were on.

"Okay, we're here," William said pointing at the screen, then pointed at another one that was approximately fifteen kilometers away," Not like distance meant anything there, "This is the closest one to us. How far off the radar did you spot my charge?"

"Good distance, why?" Ulrich asked and William smiled, "No, we only have one ship, we're not blowing up the replika."

"No, Odd is going to blow up the other one," William said and began typing, "He can remotely connect to the replika from underneath, and issue a self destruct order. That's our depth charge, Jeremie's scanner checks for any activity on the net."

"A replika exploding should do the trick," Ulrich said with a smile.

"Get Odd's attention, tell him to tether to the tower. I'll upload everything he needs," William said and Ulrich nodded and left the tower as William finished up.

Ulrich relayed it too Odd who flew his Nav skid to the tower and uploaded the data.

"Odd, minimal safe distance, will be around three kilometers. You got three minutes to get that far," William said and Odd laughed.

"A kilometer a minute, sounds easy," Odd said and untethered when it was complete and took off, diving into the sea and vanishing.

William walked out of the tower and stood next to Ulrich who looked at him for a second before he looked back across their landscape.

"Our fates are now in Odd's hands," William said, slightly sarcastic.

"God help us," Ulrich said, completely serious.

* * *

The orb dropped off Yumi in sector five and she took off running to find Jeremie. If he was in Lyoko, something went very bad in the lab. She ran through the narrow hallway and came to a room with a closed door at the end. If she took one more step, she knew she'd need to hit the key, so looked for it.

"Where are you?" Yumi asked aloud, and saw it. On the wall to her immediate left, "What the?"

Yumi touched it, and watched the door open, and a small bridge form. Timidly she stepped across, suspicious of how easy this was. However, she still reached the end without conflict and stepped into the next corridor.

"What is going on?"

Yumi shrugged it off and kept running, and finally arrived where Jeremie was. He was at the dock for the skid.

Yumi looked at the skid as she stepped into the dock and saw it was still here. All of the nav skids were gone however. Yumi looked around and saw Jeremie collapsed on the floor and ran over to him.

"Jeremie!" Yumi shouted pulled his head onto her lap and tried to wake him up, "Jeremie wake up."

Then she noticed a recording constantly playing. It was Jeremie's voice, coming from the skid in a recording he looped.

"Aelita, I assume it's you. XANA launched the others into the net and I couldn't track them. Before it did, I put them to sleep so XANA couldn't either, and myself. Wake us up with the console when it's time, good luck."

"I woke up when I crashed," Yumi said and looked at the skid.

"Aelita, I assume it's you..." started to replay and Yumi looked at the monitor and ran over to the controls.

"Wake up guys," Yumi said and opened Jeremie's hibernation program and canceled it.

* * *

Alain was at the hospital again, sitting across from Aelita with Dr. Sentry leaning on the door frame observing.

"Aelita, tell me about when you fell again," Alain said and Aelita looked at Dr. Sentry and nodded.

"I saw the stars when I fell. And the moon, full moon, glistening in the sky," Aelita said with a faint smile.

"Is that what you sincerely remember?" Alain asked and she nodded, "Because it's impossible."

"Why?"

"You can't see stars in Paris, not enough to worth mentioning. The moon wasn't above you, and it was a new moon," Alain said and even Dr. Sentry thought that was interesting.

"Inspector, a moment?" Dr. Sentry asked, so Alain nodded and smiled at Aelita before he stood up and stepped into the hallway.

"Yes?" Alain asked.

"Her memory is working to fill in the gaps. Anything related to the sky, or a fall, is being crammed in that hole to fill the void," Dr Sentry said and Alain looked at Aelita who looked back at him.

"How do you suggest I narrow her focus?" Alain asked.

"Ask her about stars and the moon, other times she's seen them. See where it goes," Dr. Sentry answered and he nodded and walked back into the room.

"Aelita, tell me more about stars," Alain said and Aelita looked at D. Sentry, then back at Alain.

"I don't understand," Aelita said.

"Another time you saw them."

"I remember laying in the grass, looking up at the sky. We went into the country for school once," Aelita said and and he smiled.

"Tell me more."

"Well, we were holding hands and..."Aelita said and blinked, surprised she said that, "I mean...what were we talking about?"

"Stars."

"Right, we were holding hands and..." Aelita said and stopped again. Suddenly her head hurt, making her wince and place her hand on the side of her head.

"Aelita, are you alright?" Alain asked and she nodded.

"Holding hands with who?" Dr. Sentry asked and placed her hand over the emergency button.

"What were we talking about?" Aelita asked.

"The night sky in the country, laying in the cool grass. The sky above you glistening," Alain answered.

"I did that once, it was a school trip. To be honest, I don't think anyone cared about why we went in the first place. Unlike at Kadic, we could see stars there. We managed to sneak away and find a spot with a good view. Full moon that night too.

"I'll remember that night forever. We had kissed before but this was something different. Something beautiful. When he kissed me that night, it paralyzed me. It shot shivers down my spin, and made my body tremble."

"Who kissed you?" Alain asked.

"Who else, Jeremie did."

The room went silent. Dr. Sentry almost pressed the button on impulse but watched as Aelita didn't react at first. Slowly she seemed to realize she wasn't where she thought she was.

"Jeremie," Aelita said on the verge of tears, "Jeremie," she said again, now crying. "Jeremie!" Aelita screamed and crawled toward the corner of her bed again.

"Aelita, breathe," Dr. Sentry said, pressing the button and walking over to her, "I need you to relax."

"I need to help him! Jeremie needs help!" Aelita screamed and Dr. Sentry looked at the orderlies who walked in and motioned for them to stand by.

"Aelita, calm down, breathe," Dr. Sentry said and motioned for Alain to leave by gesturing with her head. Alain left the room and waited in her office for about thirty minutes before she came in.

"Did you get anything out of that?" Dr. Sentry asked.

"Confirmed the relationship between her and Jeremie Belpois for one. Jeremie is missing, she might know what happened to him. I think who ever pushed her, did something to Jeremie as well. That's why she associates it the way she does."

"Memory recollection is tricky, and mostly unreliable. It's hard to say what's a real memory, or a blending of things together. Jeremie could just as easily be a crush and she just described her fantasy," Dr. Sentry said and Alain shook his head.

"I'll have to ask some of her classmates then, cross verify my theory," Alain said and stood up to leave, then remembered.

"Does the name Franz Hopper mean anything to her?" Alain asked, figuring it was a long shot.

"Not that I'm aware of, why?"

"My investigation led me to that man, whose record was blacked out, suspiciously blacked out from people who went through trouble doing it."

"I'll bring up the name next session," Dr Sentry said, and he thanked her before leaving.

* * *

_**I decided I'll upload two chapters every time I use the internet**_


	4. Minimum Safe Distance

Sitting at his desk, Alain went through her file again. His instincts told him Franz Hopper was a piece to this puzzle somehow. Tomorrow he was going to talk to some students at Kadic, then maybe the Ishiyama's because they were close enough to meet in person. Until then, all he could do was look at her file and think. Then his computer binged from an email.

Looking at the screen he saw one new message so opened it and saw it was from a Dr. Alfhild Hallman. Opening the message he read it aloud to himself.

"_Inspector, no one by that name has ever worked for, or in collaboration with this institute. I apologize if this is not what you were hoping for. But I do remember a Dr. Hopper, but from a very long time ago. A woman named Hopper, probably unrelated but if it helps, she worked at the now defunct Frontier Technologies."_

Alain wrote a reply, thanking the doctor for responding at all and looked at Aelita's file. On his notes for Franz Hopper he wrote _Frontier Technologies_ and placed question marks. It was probably unrelated, but a lead was a lead.

After he finished the notes he looked at he drawer and placed his hand on the handle. This time he didn't even pull the handle before he started to chant.

"Slyvie...Slyvie...Slyvie..." Alain chanted and let the handle go.

* * *

Alain sat in a chair next to the office of Jean-Pierre Delmas, waiting for the Head Master to arrive. He was already late as it was. Alain looked at his watch and groaned before he heard a nagging girl.

"Daddy, I need it," the girl said as she rounded the corner, making demands from her father.

"Not now Elizabeth, we'll talk about it after class, preferably after midterms when you prove you've earned it," the man said and the girl stomped off. Delmas saw Alain, and shook his hand before inviting him into his office where they sat across from one another.

"Sorry for my lack of punctuality, my daughter wants my wallet again," Mr. Delmas said and Alain returned a faint smile as they stepped into his office.

"What can I help you with Inspector, Beaumont was it?" Mr. Delmas asked as he sat at his desk, "Does this regard the disappearances, or Ms. Stones?"

"Both," Alain said, "I think they might be related. I'm trying to build a pattern of life for them, particularily Aelita. What do you know about her?"

"As a student, she was brilliant. Top five percent in her class, and I've heard she was quite the deejay too. Outside of class, I know little about her, just that she was friends with the missing children. When I found out she was here under a fraudulent ID, I had no idea how to respond. Mr. Della Robbia was apparently her cousin. I have no idea where her tuition was coming from either."

"Does the name Franz Hopper mean anything to you?" Alain asked.

"Yes, he was a former teacher here, even before I was head master," Mr. Delmas answered, "Is he involved?"

"I'm not sure yet," Alain said and Mr. Delmas looked at him, thinking.

"Ask Suzanne Hertz, she's been here longer than I have, she might remember him," Mr. Delmas said Alain wrote her name down.

"I also need to talk to some of the students. You can shadow me if you want, I understand the school is a business, and parents may not want an Inspector badgering their children."

"My secretary can assist you in that. Do remember, if they do not want to talk to you," Mr. Delmas said and Alain nodded and left the office while the secretary followed to make sure none of the interviews were harassing toward the students

After interviewing twelve students, he concluded Aelita and Jeremie were a couple, but not much beyond that. The group spent time with other students, and were well thought of. Sometimes, the group left and no one knew where they went. This happened often enough for a genuine conspiracy to go around the student body.

"Yeah, they'd be gone for hours at a time. No one knew where they went," Amelia Solovieff answered when asked if she heard about them constantly vanishing.

"I know Jeremie was dating Aelita, what about the others? Any relationships Amelia?"

"It's Milly, and Odd's dated pretty much every girl in his grade. Ulrich, Yumi, and William, that's a nasty little triangle there."

"How so."

"Ulrich likes Yumi, Yumi likes Ulrich, both are cowards. William shows up, he likes Yumi, and he isn't a coward. I guess they worked it out eventually, cause William hung out with both, but the animosity was pretty thick."

"Thank you," Alain said and started to walk before Milly stopped him.

"Is Aelita okay?" Milly asked.

"She's doing better," was all he said before he walked away.

Figuring he wasn't getting any further with the students whose stories and opinions were consistent, he decided to go find Suzanne Hertz. Walking into the science department he found her at her desk, grading papers. He softly knocked on the door, making her turn her head and place her pen on the stack of quizes in front of her.

"Beaumont?" Mrs. Hertz asked and Alain nodded and walked into her class room, stealing a chair from one of the work tables and sitting on it next to her. They shook hands and she took off her glasses.

"How may I help you?" Mrs. Hertz asked.

"I'm here to ask you about a man named Franz Hopper," Alain said and she made a look of genuine surprise.

"Franz Hopper, I haven't heard that name in years. What about him?"

"Anything."

"He disappeared in 1994, that was when I was a physics teacher. When he left I took over his job, which was only temporary, but I'm still here."

"Family?"

"Not that I was aware of."

"According to what I dug up, he had a daughter, named Aelita," Alain said and Mrs. Hertz seemed shocked again.

"That's a strange coincidence," Mrs. Hertz said.

"It might not be. I think Ms. Stones stole her identity, and her friends used it to fraudulently enroll her here."

"Oh my," Mrs. Hertz said, "I wish I could be of more help, but he was just a quiet, and rather unremarkable man."

"Thank you for your time," Alain said, shook her hand, and left her to grade papers.

As he entered the hallway his phone rang, he saw a number instead of a name and answered.

"Inspector Beaumont, this is Giles Melo, you called in reference to Frontier Technologies earlier?" Giles asked.

"Yes, about a former employee, last name Hopper," Alain said and leaned against the locker.

"Anthea?" Giles asked.

"Spell it for me," Alain said and wrote down her name, "Anything about her?"

"She left the company in the early eighties for a big juicy government job."

"Did you personally know her?"

"Of course, I hired her personally. I went to her wedding too," Giles answered.

"What was her name before Hopper, her maiden name?" Alain asked.

"Inspector, her maiden name was Hopper," Giles answered and Alain found that strange.

"Did she have a brother named Franz, or any relation to a Franz Hopper?"

"Never heard of him," Giles said and Alain thought for a moment.

"What was her husband's name?"

"Schaeffer, I can't remember his first name for the life of me, I only met him a few times. We stayed in touch for a few years, after she left, but the last thing I got was a Christmas card years ago."

"Thank you," Alain said and hung up, leaning against the locker again.

"Anthea Schaeffer," Alain said to himself, wondering if it was worth it or not to investigate her. A lead was lead, so he decided he would, but he was going to put it on the back burner for now.

"Dead ends, everywhere," Alain said to himself and looked at his phone. This was becoming so frustrating he wanted to throw it. His phone rang again. It was a number and not a name.

"Inspector, it's Dr. Sentry," Dr. Sentry said, "I mentioned Franz Hopper."

"What happened?"

"A bomb went off, worse than Jeremie. I actually had to sedate her," Dr. Sentry said and Alain was quiet. Who was Franz Hopper to her?

"Inspector, her reaction was like survivors guilt. But more importantly, he might have been her father."

"What?"

"She was screaming for her father to not do it, and he was going to die if he did. Franz Hopper might be another victim."

Just when this investigation was starting to at least not make less sense, it took another turn.

* * *

Odd navigated the net alone, directly toward the replika William had plotted on his scanner for him. When did William learn computers this fluently when no one was looking? Whenever he did, they were glad he found the time to learn what Jeremie spent months trying to teach them.

Odd arrived at the replika and sunk lower to get beneath it and tether himself to it. When he was connected he noticed his nav skid had forty-three percent power left, so decided he'd charge it while it was here. The replika recharged his skid so he delayed on activating he self destruct order.

Leaning back he watched the power rise and blinked, noticing something out of the corner of his eye. His radar, he could have sworn he saw a bleep on it. Shrugging it off he looked at the tether, then at his power again. it was at forty-nine percent. Sighing, he swore he saw it again

"Something is out there," Odd said, flipping a few switches and get his torpedo's ready, "Come out, come out where ever you are."

Looking at his radar he saw the bleep appear again and turned right to see a kongre looking straight at him. Odd looked around and saw two swimming out of site again around the side of the replika. Soon his radar was going crazy, he counted seven, and those were just the ones in range. Odd looked at his power, fifty-seven percent.

"Good enough," Odd said and started the self destruct upload, which the screen said would take thirty seconds, "Oh come on."

Suddeny his Nav skid was hit by a laser fired from a kongre.

"You little..." Odd complained before his skid rocked again from another hit.

Odd turned the skid and fired at the group of konrge, hit one dead on and destroying another one in the blast. Firing that torpedo set off the hive because his radar erupted into a siren of warning. Fifteen seconds.

Odd was hit again and he fired back, destroying several before several swam around the replika and vanished again. Odd was hit again from the other side, "Oh come on!" Five seconds.

Odd pointed the skid toward the replika Ulrich and William were on and waited.

"Three...two...one...disengage!" Odd shouted as the tether came off and Odd was full speed away from the blast range. He saw lasers shooting pass his skid as he rolled left and right to be a harder target. Odd turned his skid one hundred and eighty, saw at least twenty behind him, fired and whipped it around again. In the first minute he wasn't a kilometer away.

"Move, move, move!" Odd shouted, bobbing and weaving away from his pursuers who relentlessly fired at him, "Of course I have the slowest skid!"

Odd flipped a few switches and set his torpedo on a delay. He fired it in front of him and it detonated when he passed it. Five of kongres were destroyed and the blast damaged the skid but pushed him faster. Two minutes and he was ahead of the blast radius.

The nav skid was hit by another laser, and Odd looked at his points and saw he couldn't take a beating like this anymore. Thirty seconds till detonation. The kongres on his radar were backing off and scattering. That was either very good or very bad. Ten seconds.

"Make it, make it, make it!" Odd shouted as he felt the Nav skid shake. He still had a few hundred meters to get out of blast range. Odd watched his radar as chunks of the replika came shooting toward him. He dodged the chunks front and back before the skid was hit and he almost lost control, the hit sending him grinding against another piece.

"Come on!" Odd shouted, turning away and getting passed the safe distance, and home free. Odd turned the skid and saw a sea of debris behind. Breathing deep he laughed and shouted in victory before turning his skid and regrouping with the others

* * *

_**Hopefully, chapters 5-6 in by the end of the week.**_


	5. Where is Lyoko?

Aelita was still shaken the next day when Alain arrived to speak to her again. She was sitting on the corner of her bed, clenching her knees and still crying.

"I heard you got upset yesterday," Alain said and Aelita didn't look at him, or acknowledged him, "Aelita."

"Why did daddy do it?" Aelita asked, "Why did he leave me?"

"I don't know, Aelita. To be honest, I don't know much of what's really going on here. I need your help," Alain said and Aelita swallowed hard.

"Lyoko," Aelita said.

"What is Lyoko?"

"Lyoko," Aelita said again.

"Where is Lyoko?" Alain asked and Aelita pulled her knees deeper into her face.

"Is Lyoko where your friends are?" Alain asked and she look at him, and nodded, "Where is it?"

"Inspector, hallway," Dr. Sentry said but he ignored her.

"Where is Lyoko?"

"Inspector."

"Where are they?" Alain asked again and Aelita trembled away from him, "Aelita where are they?"

"No!" Aelita shouted and stood up and leaped off the bed. She knocked Dr. Sentry to the ground and turned into the hallway and took off running.

Dr. Sentry got to her feet and hit the emergency button. Orderlies caught her easily at the end of the hallway. They didn't touch her, they just blocked her path as Dr. Sentry ran up from behind her.

"Aelita, calm down," Dr. Sentry said to her softly.

"No! I won't tell you where it is!" Aelita shouted as Dr. Sentry took small steps toward her.

"Aelita, I don't need you to tell me anything. Just come with me, back to your room," Dr. Sentry said and was now standing next to her. She reached out to touch her, and Aelita saw her, she swiftly turned around and slapped her across the face.

"Don't touch me! I'll never tell you!" Aelita shouted and the orderlies moved but Dr. Sentry gestured for them to stop.

"I'm sorry, I won't touch you. Come with me please," Dr. Sentry said and Aelita shook her head.

Aelita saw a syringe in one of the orderlies hands and charged him, grabbing his arm and biting it. He dropped the syringe on the floor allowing her to quickly snatch it and got back to her feet.

"Get away from me!" Aelita shouted, holding the syringe like a knife.

"Aelita, put it down, I can't help you if you don't. Don't make them do it Aelita."

Dr. Sentry took a step so Aelita swiped at her, making her nod to the orderlies who restrained, sedated and carried her to her room.

* * *

"Inspector, when I say stop, you stop!" Dr. Sentry shouted at Alain who sat in her office, "Lyoko is not real, do not play into her delusions!"

"Lyoko is the only tangible thing she's holding onto that could actually lead us somewhere," Alain said and Dr. Sentry shook her head and sat at her desk.

"Get out of my ward," Dr. Sentry said and Alain stood up, "If you come back, you do it with a court order."

"That girl remembers..."Alain started.

"That girl fell off a roof and woke up with a scrambled brain! You don't fix that by stirring it up again!" Dr. Sentry shouted and Alain calmed himself down.

"You can't tell me, something isn't messed up here. I've never dug this deep without answers in my entire career. Everything is a dead-end, or a cover up, or the files are missing. Something happened to that girl, whether or not Lyoko exists. I'm trying to speak her language."

"You're playing into fantasies."

"I will be back," Alain said and left her office.

* * *

Ulrich sat outside of the tower and watched the landscape for any movement. How was it possible they had come this far and not one attack from XANA? William was still in the tower waiting to see if Odd did it, and saw a huge surge of energy from the replika. William smiled and stepped out of the tower and found Ulrich.

"It just detonated," William said and Ulrich stood up.

"Odd get out in time?"

"I don't know, too much energy in that direction to read anything but the blast," William said and Ulrich looked at him suspiciously.

"How do you suddenly know everything about how to operate the system?" Ulrich asked and William smiled.

"I told you, the new guy over compensates. I admit it, when I first joined, I was reckless. I've spent months trying to get back into everyone's good graces."

"By becoming a computer genius?" Ulrich asked and William shook his head.

"No, I'm really only using five commands, a search algorithm, and executing orders on commands already built into the system architecture, it's not that hard."

"Then why haven't we learned it. Jeremie's to teach us for years and you learned it no problem?" Ulrich asked.

"Honest answer, you guys have used Jeremie as a crutch for years. You have never had to rebuild everyone's faith in you."

Ulrich clinched a fist because he had. William was making him angry, because he seemed to be showing off about his new skill set. The fact he said it wasn't that hard made him more angry.

Suddenly Odd's skid burst from the digital sea and they both turned and saw him.

"Odd, tether to the tower, I found the bug to get you out," William said and Ulrich scowled as William walked into the tower as Odd tethered. A moment later Odd appeared on the ground next to Ulrich and jumped in the air in celebration.

"Yes! Freedom! Dude, you should have seen it! There was like a thousand of them shooting at me, I bobbed and weaved..." Odd excitedly explained as he moved, jumped, and made his own arcade sound effects explaining his daring escape.

"Sounds like an adventure," William said as he walked out of the tower while Ulrich had stopped listening to Odd, "Now what?"

* * *

Yumi sat on the ground in the dock and suddenly heard the monitor beeping. Sitting up she looked at the screen and wasn't sure what she saw. It was huge surge of data on the net.

"XANA?" Yumi asked.

"No," Jeremie said next to her.

"Jeremie!" Yumi shouted and hugged him, and he hugged her back before he let her go and looked at the screen.

"See how the energy is moving, all of it from one originating source. This is an explosion. A huge one. Like a replika exploding," Jeremie said and Yumi had no idea what to make of that.

"Why would XANA destroy a replika?"

"XANA wouldn't, we would," Jeremie said and smiled, "It's them."

Jeremie opened the monitor, ran a program to estimate the origin of the blast and scanned for replikas in the area. He only found one.

"My money, they're here," Jeremie said and Yumi looked at the screen as Jeremie sent a message through the tower.

"How do we get them?" Yumi asked and Jeremie looked at the skid.

"We need to find Aelita," Jeremie said.

"I can pilot it," Yumi said and Jeremie shook his head, "What?"

"I'm not sending you out there alone. Besides, XANA probably bugged the skid as well so we couldn't leave it. We don't know if they have all of the skids to get them back anyway. If they got out, one of them needed to destroy their skid to do it, so at least one of them is lacking transportation."

"Build more," Yumi said and Jeremie let out a sigh.

"I can, but not from here. Only the terminal in the lab has administrative control like that. I can alter and execute commands from here, but I can't build."

"So you need to go back?" Yumi asked and Jeremie shook his head.

"We. I was hurt, bad, when I virtualized myself. I'm going back out the same way I went in. I'm going to need you," Jeremie said and Yumi reluctantly nodded.

"How we getting out?" Yumi asked and Jeremie apologized before he grabbed her fan and stabbed her. As she devirtualized Jeremie held the fan out in front and stabbed himself in the chest.


	6. Unraveled

Alain was at his desk, case file open, documents on his computer monitor. He typed Anthea Hopper into the search field and found results. It confirmed her relationship to Frontier Technologies and several of the files said '_Under Schaeffer_'. He searched through Schaeffer's files and found black censors blocks.

"You have to be kidding me, both of them. Who the hell are these people?"

suddenly his phone rang. His desk phone. It was two in the morning, who was calling on the off-chance he'd be in his office.

"Beaumont," He said when he answered.

"Alain, my office, now," Chief Inspector said over the phone and hung up.

"Moving sir," Alain said and hung up, then slammed the phone on the receiver a few times before he stood up and groaned. Alain was beyond frustrated, and now his boss was calling him at two, and that was never a good thing.

Taking the elevator up a few floors he walked down the hall, took a right and walked into the reception room, then through another door where Chief Inspector St. Pierre sat at his desk. He stood up when Alain walked in and told him to take a seat.

"Alain, what's your progress with the jumper?"

"Dead ends," Alain said and looked at his boss.

"I just got a call, from upstairs about that case."

"Upstairs? You're Chief Inspector sir, who's above you?" Alain asked.

"DRM called, you flagged on a few searches. They asked for a cease and desist on your investigation," St. Pierre said and Alain shot up out of the chair.

"Tell them they can shove that order up their ass!" Alain shouted, "I'm not closing the case."

"I did," St. Pierre said, making Alain calmed down, "I convinced them you can finish the case, but you never saw the names Hopper, or Schaeffer."

"That's my only lead."

"Find something else, I've dug into cases only to find out my suspects were under cover Interpol, GIGN, all kinds of craziness. Sometimes you flip over a rock and find a snake. Don't mess with the snake, keep flipping rocks."

"Fine," Alain said and stopped at the door, "Thanks for sticking your neck out sir."

"Solve the case," St. Pierre said and he nodded and started to walk out before he said, "I've noticed you've pretty much been living here for nearly a month now. Go home."

"It's felt empty since she moved out," Alain said and leaned against the door frame.

"This is not an easy job. It's sometimes harder on families than it is on us. When you finish this case, take leave. Take Sylvie to the country, just get out of the city."

"I'll think about it," Alain said and left.

Arriving at his desk, Alain sat down and sighed, placing his forehead on Aelita's file and softly and repeatedly knocked his head on his desk. He turned his head on saw the picture frame and saw his wife and daughter posing with him for a portrait. They were currently separated, and his wife took their daughter with her.

Alain looked at his phone contacts and hovered over a name. '_Paulette'_. He was moments away from hitting call before his computer received an email. It was from Giles Melo.

"_Inspector, I'm not sure if this will help or not, but I found that Christmas card Anthea sent me a long time ago. Hope it helps."_

Alain opened the jpeg attachment, and his eyes widened.

"That's not possible," Alain said as he looked at the photo. It was a picture of Anthea posing for a Christmas photo with her husband and daughter. Her husband was a man he recognized as Franz Hopper. The daughter, was Aelita. She was younger, but it was undoubtably her.

A strange case just became an impossible one.

* * *

Dr. Sentry sat at her desk and heard someone barge in and saw Alain.

"You better have a court order," Dr. Sentry said and he placed it on her desk.

"How old is Aelita?"

"Sixteen, where are you going with this?"

"How old is she in this photo?" Alain asked and placed a copy the Christmas card on her desk.

"Seven or eight, so what?"

"It was taken in 1988," Alain said, and Dr. Sentry looked at him, and did the math.

"You mean 1998?"

"I dug, very deep. So deep, the DRM called my boss, and requested I stop my investigation. But, I think I unraveled that girl's history just in time.

"Anthea Hopper was her mother, Franz Hopper was her father. Here's where it gets weird. I don't think Franz Hopper was his name, I think his name is Schaeffer. Franz Hopper appears the same time Anthea Schaeffer's paper trail ends, in 1992. Something happened to her, and he took his daughter into hiding, changed his name to Hopper, his wife's maiden name.

"Why Anthea vanishes, might have something to do with a government project she worked on. Either way, Aelita Hopper, disappears with her father, 1994, at age twelve. 2004, Aelita Stones enrolls, at Kadic academy, age twelve.

"I think Lyoko was the name of the project Anthea worked on. The only thing that doesn't fit in this whole thing, is the center piece everything branched out from; Aelita. Somehow, a twenty-six year old girl is sixteen. She didn't steal Aelita Hopper's identity, she just resumed her own.

"I think Lyoko is real, and she was pushed off of that roof to tie up loose ends. I'm going to question her again," Alain said and Dr. Sentry looked at him, in disbelief, but still followed him. He arrived at her door and tried to open it, but discovered it wasn't open as before.

"I thought she was low risk," Alain said and Dr. Sentry unlocked the door for him.

"That was before she attacked me," Dr. Sentry answered and opened the door, "Talk to her."

Alain walked into her room and saw she was calmer than she was last time he came. Calmer, but not calm. Aelita was in her bed, under the blankets crying. Alain sat next to her like he had before, and she turned in her bed, away from him.

"Hello Aelita," Alain said and he watched Aelita breathing.

"I don't want to talk," Aelita said and Alain sighed and looked at the doctor who frowned at him.

"I believe Lyoko is real," Alain said and Aelita rolled over and looked at him, "I believe you."

"Really?"

"I do, but I need to ask you a few questions, and I need you to tell me the truth. The absolute truth," Alain said and Aelita nodded.

"Where is it?" Alain asked and Aelita looked away.

"The bad men will find it," Aelita said and Alain was going to speak before his phone went off. Checking it, he saw it was the Chief Inspector so he told her he'd be right back.

"Sir?" Alain asked, as he stepped into the hallway.

"Get to the hospital now," St. Pierre said.

"I'm already here interviewing Aelita again," Alain said, "Why?"

"Yumi Ishiyama just checked Jeremie Belpois into the ICU," St. Pierre said and Alain said he was moving before he walked back into Aelita's room.

"Aelita, I'm going down stairs, we'll talk again soon," Alain said, receiving a nod before he ran out.

* * *

_**Happy Mother's Day, once again, I hope to get the next two chapters out by the end of the week. All depends on my schedule.**_


	7. Where Have You Been?

Jeremie entered surgery in critical condition and Yumi sat in the emergency room waiting for information. Yumi's hands were covered in his blood from getting him here, from a severe injury to his back. Yumi sat, in near tears, looking at her hands and praying he didn't lose too much.

Alain walked into the ICU and saw Yumi. Yumi looked up at him, then back down and didn't notice him approaching her. He sat down across from her, and she looked up at him.

"Ms. Ishiyama?" Alain asked and Yumi nodded, "I'm Inspector Beaumont, what happen to you?"

"Jeremie fell near the construction site, on a piece of rubar," Yumi said and he shook his head.

"No, where have you been?" Alain asked.

"We left after school, and he fell about half an hour ago," Yumi answered.

"Do you have any idea how long you've been missing for?" Alain asked and Yumi looked at him confused.

"A few hours?" Yumi asked.

"Seven months," Alain answered and Yumi stood up, but he grabbed her arm, "Where have you been?"

"Seven...that's not possible," Yumi said and tugged her arm away from him, "That's not possible."

"What happened to Jeremie?" Alain asked and Yumi shook her head.

"He fell, at the construction site," Yumi said and Alain pulled out his hand cuffs "What are you doing?"

"You're impeding an investigation, so I'm taking you in," Alain said, "Turn around."

"I'm still a minor," Yumi said.

"You were seven months ago," Alain said and spun her around and used force to cuff her.

"Let me go!" Yumi shouted as Alain led her by the chain of the cuffs.

* * *

Yumi was released from the hand cuffs and placed in an interrogation room where she sat nervously staring straight down, looking at the table, avoiding Alain's eyes.

"I want, answers," Alain said and Yumi continued to stare at the table. Alain slammed his fists on the table and shouted, "Answer me!"

Yumi jumped away and looked up, breathing in deep and saw the blood on her hands again.

"Where is Ulrich, Odd, and William?"

"I don't know," Yumi said and he slammed his fists again.

"God dammit! Stop lying!" Alain said and Yumi felt herself tilting her shoulder toward him, like a shield she was trying to hide behind.

"I'm not lying."

"You don't vanish for seven months, and not age a day. Aelita vanished for a decade, same thing," Alain said and noticed Yumi's shocked reaction and said, "I know."

"About what?"

"Lyoko," Alain said and Yumi looked down, then back up again quickly as if she remembered something.

"Aelita, is she...where is she?"

"The night all of you went missing, Aelita was found on the roof a car she caved in from a four-story fall," Alain said and Yumi placed her hands on her mouth to muffle the cry she let out, "She's in the hospital with brain damage."

"She's alive?" Yumi asked and Alain nodded.

"She is, and I just got word Jeremie is stable," Alain said and Yumi smiled and looked at the table, "But I need answers. Where are the others?"

Yumi looked at him, uncertain if telling him was helping her friends, or betraying them. Something told her, he didn't know everything, and that he could be trusted.

"They're in Lyoko," Yumi said and Alain sat down across from her, "Jeremie got injured and put himself in Lyoko, but when you leave, you come out the same way you went in."

"What happened to Aelita?" Alain asked and Yumi shook her head.

"I was still in Lyoko when what ever happened, happened," Yumi said and Alain crossed his arms and leaned into the seat.

"Did something happen in lyoko?" Alain asked and Yumi nodded.

"We got scattered, the others are lost in the net somewhere?" Yumi said and Alain crossed his arms and told her to keep explaining. Which she did, for five more minutes before the interrogation room door opened and another officer walked in and handed him a sheet of paper. Alain read it then excused himself before he stood up and left the room.

Chief Inspector was outside and Alain saw him as he walked out.

"Sir?" Alain asked.

"Her parents are here. They're livid. You have a girl, missing for over six months and your first instinct is to treat her like a suspect. Give her to her parents before civil rights activists start throwing rocks at police," he said and turned away from him.

"Sir I..."Alain started before the Chief Inspector turned around.

"This is not a negotiation. Let her loose, now. If you need to debrief her about her disappearance, her parents will be present. That is an order," Chief Inspector said and turned around again, leaving Alain to swear to himself, but did as told.

"Your parents are here," Alain said when he walked back into the room and handed her a card, "You're free to go, but if you remember anything, call."

"Can I see Aelita?" Yumi asked and Alain shrugged.

"Not sure, that's up to Dr. Sentry. She's not my biggest fan anymore. Here's her number though, find out for yourself," Alain said and escorted Yumi to her parents.

Mrs. Ishiyama hugged her to death and they were escorted out the back to avoid the press. Alain watched them leave and opened his phone and called Dr. Sentry.

"Can I help you Inspector?" Dr. Sentry asked with a tone that she didn't want to speak to him but was too professional to not answer.

"Jeremie Belpois and Yumi Ishiyama were found alive. Yumi wants to visit her," Alain said and waited for a response.

"Fine," Dr. Sentry said and hung up.

Alain sighed and walked to the elevator to go to his desk. He sat down, opened his drawer, pulled out a bottle of scotch and a cup that he poured the drink into. He gulped it down and coughed, pouring another cup and doing it again. He looked at his phone and checked his contacts. He found his eyes hovering on 'Paulette'.

Alain hit call and put the phone to his ear and listened. It rang several times before a woman's voice answered.

"Alain?"

"Can I talk to her?" Alain asked and Paulette paused, but told him to wait.

"Daddy?" Sylvie asked and felt himself light up.

"Hey princess," Alain said with a smile, "How are you?"

"I miss you, when can I see you?" Sylvie asked and Alain looked at his case files and sighed.

"Soon, I promise. How's school," Alain asked and Sylvie talked about her teacher, her class, her friends, and Alain just smiled and listened.

Alain listened to her for over half an hour, and it put him in the best mood he had been in for a while. When it came time to stop, Paulette got on the phone again.

"Thanks," Alain said and Paulette sighed.

"You're her father, no matter how mad I get at you, I can't take it out on her," Paulette said and paused for a moment before she said, "I'm not even sure if I'm mad anymore."

"Did you have to leave?" Alain asked.

"You know where my parents live, it's not like we're far. It's not like you tried to stop us," Paulette said and Alain was silent for a moment.

"When I finish this case, I'm going to take some leave. Is it alright if I take Sylvie to the country?" Alain asked and Paulette sighed as she thought.

"We'll talk about it, when you actually take leave," Paulette said and Alain thanked her for at least humoring the idea. They said their good byes and hung up. Alain placed his phone on his desk finished another glass of scotch before leaning into his chair and accidentally falling asleep in it.

Alain woke up to his phone ringing. He looked at the time and saw it was the four in the morning. Picking up the phone he saw a number not a name, but recognized the number. It was Dr. Sentry.

"Beaumont," Alain said when he answered, slightly hung over from the empty bottle that rolled onto his floor in the middle of the night.

"Aelita escaped," Dr. Sentry said and Alain felt himself getting sober.


	8. Escape to Lyoko

Alain walked into the ward and stood in the hall next to Aelita's door that Dr. Sentry was standing just inside of. Dr. Sentry looked at him and sighed, stepping out of her room and looking into it while standing next to him.

"What do you know so far?" Dr. Sentry asked and Alain looked at the room.

"The visitors log from last night has a discrepancy. At two in the morning Utada Hikaru signed in and she signed back out fifteen minutes later," Alain said and confused Dr. Sentry.

"Why is that a discrepancy?"

"Utada is a japanese pop star, I only know that because my daughter's a fan. Apparently your cameras don't work, so I can't ID my suspect."

"You have a suspect, you think someone helped her?"

"Yumi, and it only took her fifteen minutes. She's either really good, or your security is atrocious, and I'm more inclined to think the later."

"She knew how to pick locks," Dr. Sentry said, looking at Aelita's door, "This is an older ward. We have mostly key locks, very few doors have magnetic or cypher locks. Only the main door, and the emergency exits are on grids with closed systems."

Alain looked down the hallway and tried to figure out how Yumi could have done it without drawing suspicion. Then he figured she was a kid, not a mastermind. She probably relied on a classic.

"How does laundry work here?" Alain asked and Dr. Sentry noticed new sheets on Aelita's bed.

"Every other day sheets are replaced and several of the patients make their own beds, Aelita included. The patients have three sets of clothes, and they get washed with the sheets."

"Let me guess, laundry was last night," Alain said and walked down the hallway.

"Yes it was...where are you going?" Dr. Sentry asked and followed him.

"Where do the laundry carts go?" Alain asked, and Dr. Sentry finally realized his intent.

"You have to be kidding me," She said and followed him.

From the fifth floor which was the mental health ward, they arrived at maintenance in the basement. Following signs and some helpful directions from a worker they went into the laundry room. Only half of the machines were working, but it still made you shout at the person standing next to you.

"Is there an employee exit?" Alain asked and an employee led him to a loading dock behind the hospital. Looking around at the dock he saw the first road so walked over to it, looked across the street and saw a camera on the corner of the intersection. He pointed at the camera and Dr. Sentry looked up at it.

"How much do you wanna bet?" Alain asked.

* * *

The building owner was more than happy to give a copy of the surveillance tapes, this actually not being the first he had. Alain watched the recording at his desk when he got back to his office and fast forwarded to find out if he was correct. At two twenty-three in the morning, he saw Aelita enter the frame and paused it.

"Where are you going?" Alain asked himself and hit play, to see Yumi enter the frame, while pushing someone in a wheel chair, "Who's in the wheel...Jeremie."

Alain called the hospital and asked for an update on Jeremie, to find out another officer was already investigating his disappearance from the hospital. He asked for a name or badge number, then called that officer to let him know a time line.

"They're going back to Lyoko to save the others," Alain said to himself, but he had no idea where to start.

The fastest way to do it, wasn't fast enough. He'd have to subpoena for the surveillance records for three of the uncooperative buildings. That could take weeks. Those had the tendency to sit on judges desks. He had one last option, all he had to do was be faster than the DRM. He decided to call the chief Inspector and give him a heads up. The response he got was not the one he expected.

"How long do you need?" St. Pierre asked.

"As much time as you can get me," Alain answered.

"I'll stonewall for as long as I can. When I say you have minutes, I'm serious. These guys have a very good response time, and suits will be in this building in maybe fifteen minutes. Find what you need, then get out of this building."

"Thank you sir," Alain said and hung up.

Alain started his searching using the two names that would flag him. When he typed in the names he found access denied screens. He now had minutes. Alain then realized something that was obvious.

'_Aelita Schaeffer'. _They hadn't blocked that name yet. The records on file were her birth certificate, a passport with a very young Aelita's picture. She had a few scholastic records on file, then he found it. Waldo Schaeffer. He clicked that and celebrated.

It was Franz Hopper. He must have been an impressive forger, because the Franz Hopper files were flawless. He worked for the government, but those files were above his pay grade. Then he saw property holdings and noticed a house in the mountains, and one in Paris. The Hermitage. The same house he remembered seeing under Anthea Hopper.

"Hermitage...that's pretty close to Kadic. I have nothing else to go off," Alain said, closed the searches and left his office before someone else arrived. As he walked out his phone received a text from St. Pierre.

'_Get out.'_

Alain pocketed his phone and pressed the down button on the elevator. When the doors opened he saw two men in suits standing in it. They were tall, imposing, in all black suits with ear pieces and visible side arms.

"Inspector, will you come with us please?" The man said and Alain paused before he stepped into the elevator and stood between them, "Thank you for your cooperation."

"Don't thank me yet," Alain said and backed up behind the one to his left and pushed him out of the elevator, the doors closing behind him. He attempted a left hook to the other but the agent instantly parried the blow and delivered a jab directly to his face.

Alain's back hit the side of the elevator as the agent rushed him, grabbed his neck and began to ram his knee into his stomach. Using his arms to block the knee, he began to reach for the elevator buttons. When he looked to find one, it distracted him long enough for the agent to get around him and put him in a choke hold. He got his hand in to prevent it from sinking, but couldn't do anything beyond defend.

Reaching for his side arm he realized he couldn't get to it. He noticed he could reach the agent's. With his free hand he grabbed the grip, switched to fire and squeezed the trigger. The round missed the agent, but it startled him enough to lose his grip on Alain who pulled away with the pistol in hand and swung, pistol-whipping him across the face.

The blow hit him just right because he collapsed to the ground of the elevator as the door opened. Alain stepped out of the elevator and threw the gun back in as the doors closed. He was on the fifth floor, so he ran down the halls to escape down the opposite stairwell.

Alain burst through the doors of the stairwell and ran down. When he reached the third floor he heard footsteps coming up. Looking over the railing, he saw a third agent running up.

"Dammit," Alain said and ran into the third floor offices. Narcotics had no idea why a code case Inspector was sprinting through but they just shrugged as he did. He reached the utility stairwell and the second floor before he heard movement from below him. A fourth agent.

Running into the second floor left homicide very confused. The fourth agent burst through the door a moment later, and he heard the opposite stair well burst as well. He was trapped. Swearing to himself he peeled left down the adjacent hallway. Reaching the side of the building that ran along side of the street he reached an office and slammed the door shut. Jumping over the desk he pushed it in front of the door.

The two agents tried to break their way in but the desk slowed them. Alain opened the window and looked down into the street. A larger truck made the fall manageable. As he leapt, he heard a gun, and felt a bullet hit his side. Unable to control his landing, he hit the top of the truck full force as people in the street began to panic and run away. Some ducked behind cars as Alain belly-flopped onto the top of the truck.

The two agents ran to the window and saw Alain motionless.

"Suspect down, ground team, east side of the building. On top of a white truck," the agent said before Alain rolled over and fired his gun. The Agents ducked into the room, and when they looked back, Alain was off the truck and across the street. The agent aimed to shoot, but realized collateral damage was too high as several civilians stood up from cover to see Alain running, dripping blood as he did.


End file.
